There’s an item on the Greens’ website tonight about the proposed relocation of Hullbridge Post Office.
It’s worth a read – here’s an extract:
Although originally not happy with the move, the post office being less accessable for most people and with the loss of the Bureau de Change, at least we were keeping a Post Office in Hullbridge and with much extended hours, at a time when many communities had lost theirs.
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However, and it is a big however, it now appears that as well as not having a Bureau de Change, it will also not be able to process paper bills like transcash, accept cheque deposits or payments, send international parcels or offer the ?local collect? service. These are major parts of the post office service as we see it and believe that we and others have been misled over the consultation process through the Post Office not referring to the loss of these services earlier.
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As a village of around 7,000 people these services were vital. Local community groups and businesses use the Post Office to bank through…
And Councillor Michael Hoy doesn’t hide his anger:
I cannot express on here how angry I am about this, well not on here anyway. The Parish Council are contacting Mark Francois as am I detailing the new problems that have come to light.
I find it astonishing that neither the Parish Council or the local District Councillors were informed of this relocation until after the event, it has put us at a complete disadvantage as we have had no time to talk to the organisation who did not respond to the advert. The Post Office has been incredibly poor in organising this changeover and I will not let it rest.
Michael Hoy
I can understand why Michael is angry !
Ward councillors weren’t contacted before the coucnil decision to support this was taken?!
Chris, I understand what you mean now. Ward Councillors were consulted by The Executive Officer holder Cllr Jo Mcpherson, and she asked our opinions.
The problem is with the post office who failed to contact the Ward/Parish Councillors before the Consultation (we learned about the move at the same time as everyone else) and that the consultation was over before we found out about some of the missing services in the new location.
Our opinions, and those of residents, may well have been different if we had all the facts from the Post Office for the consultation.
In addition if Ward/Parish Councillors had known about the retirement beforehand we may have asked or negotiated with other potential providers to come forward rather than just the one.